Read More

Mr Holmes was suspended and later dismissed and investigations were carried out which led to him being interviewed and later charged with theft.

Susan Cavender, prosecuting, said Mr Holmes is being accused of theft of £14,225 between July 6, 2017 and January 29, 2018 from the Dodo Pub Company who own the Bottle of Sauce in Albion Street in Cheltenham.

The Bottle of Sauce, corner of Ambrose Street, Cheltenham

Ms Cavender told the court that when 'cashing up' at the end of the shift, money was bagged up to go to the bank to be deposited. A trip to the bank would happen on a Monday and a Friday.

"Twenty bags of cash went missing between October and January. Almost every day these bags should have been banked, this defendant was the General Manager in charge of the money," she said.

"Mr Holmes was recruited through an agency. He produced a reference from Bill's before he was hired. The operations director will tell you that Mr Holmes left under a cloud after he disclosed he was falsifying receipts and he was not given a reference.

"He began at Bottle of Sauce on July 6 for a three week training period following by a three month probation period. This was extended an extra month over concerns with his performance. Several incidents led up to him eventually being dismissed," Miss Cavender told the court.

Read More

"He was told he must put the phone number of the Operations Manager on the bags when cashing up in case there was a problem. On January 5, 2018 the operations director noticed a bag did not have his phone number on it but the defendant's. He was asked about this and said that was how he was trained.

"On January 12 there were some uncomfortable discussions had with Mr Holmes over complaints made by other staff of not pulling his weight. He handed in his notice.

"On January 24 he told the operations director he spent £86 on staff drinks. He had been responsible for cashing up on that day," Miss Cavender added.

The court heard that on January 25, bar supervisor Bethany Hedge-Cook arrived for her shift to find that the safe did not have the correct money in it. She contacted her colleague, Josh Jones who said that Mr Holmes had said something about the safe being £350 down.

"Ms Hedge-Cook messaged Mr Holmes to ask him about it. He messaged to say he had the change and would bring it in," Ms Cavender said.

It was on the January 26 the operations director became involved and Mr Holmes was suspended after the 'Statement of Business' was not completed.

"The operations director realised he had not received the Statement of Business which is something completed each day upon cashing up. He went to the pub that morning knowing Mr Holmes was to start at 9am.

Read More

"He found the till down by £150 and a number of blue bags had vanished. He emptied the safe and there was no trace of the cash. Mr Holmes arrived and Ms Hedge-Cook saw him put an envelope containing some notes into the safe. She thought this was odd. He said he took it home to keep it safe. It was as a result of that, that he was suspended," Ms Cavender said.

Further investigations were conducted and it was discovered that during that period between July 2017 and January 2018, £14,225 had gone missing. It was all from blue bags that had been signed off on the Statement of Business but had not been received by the bank.

"All but one or two of those days had been days Mr Holmes was working. But even on his days off he would often pop into work so he could have taken the cash then," Ms Cavender alleged.

"The prosecution say he had access to the safe, he was routinely responsible and always on duty for most of the days the cash that went missing. This is strong evidence he was the person responsible for taking the cash."

Following Holmes's suspension his home was searched where paperwork was found showing that he was in substantial debt.

"In interview he denied taking the money. He said he'd had a gambling habit.

His bank account showed his spending exceeded his income by hundreds of pounds. It also showed unexplained cash payments into his account totalling over £9,000 over the same period which stopped after he was suspended.